Disclaimer: I do not own Bones. Fox does. If I did own the show though, Booth would not be wearing white briefs in a certain scene of season 2. He'd wear nothing.

Seeley Booth was slightly annoyed.

And that only if 'slightly' carried with it the understatement of a century.

Lately everything in his life had been going from bad to worse and he had no idea if he had reached rock bottom yet. But sure as hell he would. Rebecca had been plaguing him lately about spending more time with Parker and however wonderful that was, the down side was that Parker's every other word when he was with his father was 'Drew'.

'Drew took me to the park, Drew played catch with me, Drew has a shiny car…'

Drew could keel over and die as far as Booth was concerned.

On the other hand Cullen had got Booth stranded in the office. For the past thee weeks he had been buried in paperwork and handling management problems without once getting a new case. He didn't really like corpses showing up left and right, true, but not being out there in the field was killing him.

Hell, even visiting the lab had stopped being fun. When he had last visited the Jeffersonian to ask if Bones was free to go to lunch she had said she was busy and dismissed him. He knew of course his partner valued work above anything and didn't wait at his beck and call to fill his lunch hour but was it such a chore to have lunch with a friend? He realized he probably got so irritated because she truly was busy , no doubt squinting at something interesting while he filled out forms and reviewed old cases.

Yeah, right, his mind whispered. Try, you're angry because she ignored you.

"Don't even go there!" Booth said out loud. Immediately he raised his head and looked around his office and beyond his door, checking if anyone had seen him talking to himself. No one had thankfully.

Still he couldn't shake off the worried feeling that was focused on how Bones had acted lately. It had been a week and he hadn't seen her at all. Even when they talked on the phone she always seemed preoccupied and the information on her father's trial didn't appear to peak her interest, at least not at the time he told her about it.

Damn! Why was he overanalyzing this? She might have problems of her own and that didn't necessarily mean that she'd share them with him…even if that thought hurt a bit. They were just fiends.

But sometimes, God, how he resented his decision… No! He had resolved not to dwell on those feelings.

Sighing he put the manila folder back on his desk and leaned back, giving up on reading it. Life was just a crappy mess right now. Soon everything would turn back to normal though. Or he hoped so.

He was brought back to reality by the sound of his phone going off and picked it up, rubbing his temple with his free hand. "Booth."

"Hey, handsome." He smiled at the voice in his ear.

"Hey, Ange. How's it going?"

"Fine, fine. Same as usual here. Century-old dead people lying on tables all around me."

He chuckled at her bored tone. "Anything I can help with?"

"I've seen you squint, doesn't suit, honey. Though I do need you to come down to the diner." She lowered her voice which made Booth's brows furrow. "I really need to talk to you."

"What's up?"

"It's about Brennan. And no, I can't tell you more than that now.

A frown now in place, Booth quickly asked, "What time do you want to meet? Lunch?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll be at the diner in an hour with Jack."

"Hodgins? Why?"

"We'll talk to you there."

He said bye and hung up, staring at the phone curiously. Besides being busy, he hadn't noticed anything weird about Bones lately. Well maybe she was a bit snappier but he had been telling himself that's how Bones was. Even if it did an odd number on his ego and feelings sometimes. But he had promised himself to keep those feelings at bay.

Nah! Bones was fine.

Right?

"Before you sit down, I gotta say this: I really won't take anymore excuses and higher male reasoning from you, so if you plan on sitting you'd better be prepared to be honest or else just turn and leave and it's your miserable life after that, honey."

Booth had stopped just beside the table, when Angela had started talking to him.

Turning to Hodgins he raised an eyebrow in question but all he got as a reply was, "Don't look at me, man. I'm with her in this."

"Okaaay?" He sat down, curious to see what was going on that could have pushed Angela to speak in such a weird way. "I'm listening."

"I want honest answers, Booth. I mean it."

"Fine. Shoot."

" Did you ever want a little sister?"

"Huh? What's that got to do with anything?" He let out a frustrated sigh after receiving a glare from Angela.

"I always find it wise to just answer the question," Hodgins offered helpfully.

"Fine. Actually, yes. When I was younger I always thought it would be nice to be a big brother but it never happened." He shrugged.

"So you wanted a little sister to protect and love, right? Someone to tease and poke fun at but keep her out of trouble and care for."

"Yeah, I guess. But what's your-" He was cut off by Angela's raised palm.

"Booth, listen to me. If by any chance you have found an outlet for those sisterly feelings in Brennan, then we can go back to work right now." Her easy smile had Booth opening his mouth to reply. But then he shut it again when her smile turned into a serious expression at her next words. "However, I bet my ass that's not the case, so you'll be really interested at what I'm going to tell you."

"Accept fate, man. She always knows what's best for you. And by 'she' I mean Angela."

"Thanks, sweetie."

"Wow, wow. Guys! Hold on for a second. I really think we have to get things straight here, 'cause if you think-"

" I know. You're just partners, right? Fine. I asked for honest answers so if that's it, then we're done here." Under Hodgins' incredulous gaze, she picked up her purse and started getting up from her chair as calmly as ever.

Booth however was far from calm. He was burning to know what was going on. Deciding how to handle this proved to be really hard. He debated wit himself whether to betray the fact that he didn't see Bones as his little sister or not. In a matter of seconds his curiosity and frustration got the better of him.

"Wait! Angela, what's up that would interest me?"

The artist looked down at him mildly before replying. "Oh, nothing. Forget about it. It's Bren's issue and one I wouldn't discuss with Russ. I'm sure he wouldn't be interested." She emphasized Russ's name smiling sweetly.

Hodgins was still sitting, watching back and forth at the exchange. Booth felt like banging his head on the table. After what Angela said he had to know what was going on. No matter how that went against his resolve.

He sighed in resignation and looked up at her. "Sit down, Angela."

An eyebrow quirked at his direction and he replied at the silent question. "I'm not Russ. Now sit down."

A brilliant smile later she was seated once more. "Excellent."

"That's what you say. And remember, I never said I'd do, say or act on anything, got it?"

"Gotcha. However that might be a problem."

Booth's frown deepened. "How on earth can that be a problem, Ange? Things are fine as they are, we keep them that way."

"Correction. Things were fine," said Hodgins.

"Were?" He looked between the couple. "What's wrong?"

"Tell me that at least you've noticed a change in Bren in the past week!?"

"Well, I haven't seen her much but she's been busy."

"Dude, we finished up on the last Navaho we had four days ago. We've been killing time since then and Brennan has been in her office writing and filling out routine paperwork the whole time."

Booth's brows furrowed even more at what Hodgins said. Normally, in-between cases he and Bones would meet up for a reason or other and spend some time together. It was just something they did. They'd always meet up either over breakfast or dinner and not having cases going on or work to get stressed about always made those meetings even better. Now he hadn't seen her in a week and both of them weren't even busy.

"Will one of you tell me what's going on?" he demanded, suddenly extremely weary about the whole thing. Why hadn't he noticed? He knew he sounded more worried than he should, but…Hell! He was worried. A lot.

"We don't know exactly, honey, but listen. Remember that toy pig you gave her?"

A small smile came unbidden to Booth's lips as he nodded. "Jasper."

"Jasper? Never mind." Angela waved off her question. "Well, last week, Jasper was on her desk as always. Yesterday, when I went in to ask Bren for a file, it wasn't. On the desk or anywhere else in the room," she finished, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh."

"Exactly. We have a problem."

A.N.: I'm glad you like this story from what I've seen in the reviews. This is going to be a somewhat short story, (max. 10 chapters) but I'd really like your input on Booth's characterization. I want to portray him as best as I can but I have no idea how I'm doing, so opinions are very much appreciated.